A Knight to Remember
by Claire6
Summary: Sydney faces her ultimate enemy. SV


**A Knight to Remember**

Rating: PG  
Spoilers: None  
Timeline: Around the second half of Season 2  
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Alias or any of its characters. That honour lies with J.J Abrams.  
Notes: The poem Sydney quotes is a slightly edited version of "Funeral Blues" by WH Auden.

She was absolutely terrified.

Frozen solid as if stone.

Unsure as to how best defend herself.

This was a special kind of danger she was facing, one that could wipe her confidence in a second and make her question the very strength and agility that provided said confidence. The lone attacker in front of her was her ultimate enemy; he needed no type of weapon or skill to send shivers shooting down her spine. All it took was his mere presence in front of her and she was transformed from Sydney Bristow: spy extraordinaire to Sydney Bristow: pool of jelly.

He appeared as if from nowhere and moved with a deadly silence that both scared and awed her. It was a surprise attack, one that she hadn't been expecting and one that was undeserved, unmotivated. She wanted to question him why, why appear now, what had she done to provoke him, to offend him? But she concentrated her mind on remaining firm on the task at hand – to protect herself at all cost.

Sure she had defended herself against much larger opponents in the past but this one had a multitude of tactics at his disposal. Whenever they had met on previous occasions she had always had backup, a strong support system in place to aid her in their vicious fight. But now it was just her and her assailant, one on one, and deep down she honestly didn't think she had the courage inside her to win this battle alone; she had never succeeded before so how could she now? Past failures flashed before her eyes like a personal slideshow, causing fear to completely cloud her judgement. As she focused on the defeats she had suffered through, doubt started to ooze like a slow poison through her veins making her question the abilities she relied upon on a daily basis.

She could feel large droplets of sweat sliding antagonisingly slow down her temple but she hesitated in brushing them away as didn't want to give her enemy any indication that he had the upper hand, that he had control over her. That was the thing that annoyed her the most, someone having control over her. It brought flashbacks of SD-6 to mind, reminding her of an awful time when Arvin Sloane had tried to control her.

She could feel this invaders eyes on her, teasing her with his controlled movements towards her step by agonising step. She knew he could smell her fear and was drawing out his steps to taunt her, to scare her, to make her lose confidence in herself. And what scared her even more was that it was working. With ease.

She sighed deeply in trepidation.

_What a night._

She glanced around the room in desperation craving a weapon of any kind so she could defend herself. Her fingertips tingled with the craved desire of wanting to hold something, anything in front of her to show the stoic figure that she was prepared for any type of onslaught, but the few things she could have used were all just out of her reach. She smiled grimly at her situation; her attacker certainly knew what he was doing by trapping her in her bathroom – limited opportunity weapons and limited exits available. It served again to remind her not to underestimate him and what he was capable of. He was obviously a creature attuned to planning and deception.

She swallowed hard knowing with a sinking feeling that there was only one viable option open to her, and she so did not want to do it. In this situation she would have given anything not to do what she was about to do but she had to face up to the fact that she did have limitations and unfortunately one of them was standing right in front of her.

She slowly closed her eyes and groaned inwardly.

_I will never hear the end of this._

She absolutely did not want to call for help; it made her feel so inadequate, so helpless. It wasn't something she was used to but what else could she do? With her assailant blocking her only exit she was clearly trapped and she had no way of taking him out. So, taking a deep, courageous breath in she did it, knowing full well the comments and the jibes she was about to expose herself to.

VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHN!

_Hmm that might have been a tad too needy and desperate._

She opened one eye hesitantly, taking a quick glance across the room.

_Ok maybe not._

Opening her eyes fully she raised her posture slightly and tried to instil some much needed optimism into the situation as she suddenly realised that that large, only somewhat girly scream hadn't caused her assailant to pounce on her.

_Always a plus. _

Maybe he's realised that he's miscalculated this situation.

Maybe he knows backup's on the way.

………Or maybe after that scream he's embarrassed to be anywhere near me.

Hmmm

She stared hard at her attacker and he stared hard back, unmoving. She had just screamed her lungs out and he hadn't moved a muscle. He remained standing exactly in the same spot with the same quiet confidence, and she didn't know where it came from but a burst of anger suddenly enveloped her. She hated that she had been put in this position and glared at her attacker ferociously, putting all the blame on him. She crossed her arms across her chest in defiance, her confidence slowing returning with the thought that Vaughn would be with her any moment and that the end to this terrible situation would arrive with him.

_Any moment now Vaughn's gonna come charging in and you my friend are gonna be history. _

Ain't payback a b...

She smirked at the thought and her posture became a little more confident in response.

You are gonna regret ever stepping foot in this house you little piece of…..

……wait a minute, where exactly was Vaughn? As the seconds slowly ebbed by she started to wonder where her much needed backup was. The brief surge of confidence was quickly fading and was fast being replaced with anger again, only this time she redirected her anger at one particular blond haired, green eyed agent that should have already ended this situation for her.

Here she was all alone and in desperate need of help and where was her knight in sexy suit? Nowhere to be found. She had put herself out there, called for help, put her pride on the line, took a blow for the sisterhood and he dared not to even respond? No _"are you ok Syd?"_ No _"I'm coming,"_ not even a _"has someone just killed a cat?"_

She shook her head angrily. Oh no, that's not how it worked. If she was going to be mocked about this night for the next month Vaughn better damn well get here within mere seconds of her calling.

Cocking her head slightly she strained hard to hear any type of noise, for Vaughn's sake preferably the sound of running footsteps. As the seconds slowly ticked by though the only sound that was present was the growing sound of her breathing getting deeper. She clenched her fists together tightly.

_If I have to call again…….._

Suddenly there was movement across the room. Her opponent took a confident step in her direction and she didn't know why but all sense of logic and reasoning abandoned her and she decided in that split second to make a jump for it. She wasn't being taken down in her bathroom wearing her oldest pj's because it was laundry day.

_Hell no. _

Hang on……how did he know it was laundry day and I would be unprepared clothes wise for an attack?

That thought provided her with further evidence that her attacker's kind were some kind of super species, how else would he know it was laundry day? It showed that the attack wasn't unprovoked. He knew when to catch her unawares, looking her worst. There had been planning involved.

_Wait till I tell people. They try to tell me they are so innocent, so unassuming……yeah right._

Making a break for it she dived to her right and clamped her hand firmly around the closest weapon to hand, just as the bathroom door swung open with force.

"Syd?...Whoa Syd!" Vaughn yelped taking a quick step back into the safety of the illuminated hallway. "Ok Syd put down the toilet brush, it's just me." He slowly stuck his head around the doorway and took a fearful glance around the bathroom. "Why are you standing on the toilet waving a toilet brush at me?"

"Why! Why do you think? To protect myself! And where the hell have you been? That thing could have killed me by now." She shouted jabbing the brush angrily in the direction of her attacker.

"What thing?" Vaughn asked turning his attention down at the floor to see what she had been pointing at. When his eyes landed on what Sydney had been referring to he raised his head, a knowing smirk quickly forming on his face. "You've got to be kidding me. You're standing on the toilet waving a toilet brush in the air refusing to come down because of this little spider?" He knew he would pay dearly for it later but he couldn't help the laughter that erupted at the sight in front of him. Oh what he wouldn't give for a camera. Wait till he told Weiss.

"Little spider?" Sydney spluttered incredulously, wobbling dangerously on the toilet. "That thing is at least 5 inches in diameter, and do you know how dangerous spiders are? And why do they need all those legs hey, what's that about? And don't even get me started on their webs." She glared at Vaughn angrily, daring him to challenge her. "If you had got here sooner, a response time we will be discussing later by the way, you would have seen that thing showed clear evidence of planning, cunning, and down right deception. As I keep telling you, they are an extremely dangerous species."

Vaughn chuckled and leaned his lean body against the door frame. "Syd how many times are we going go through this. Spiders won't hurt you. In fact I bet he is more afraid of you that you are of him. Besides isn't danger like your middle name or something?"

"Not when it's got eight legs it's not!" She screeched back at him wringing the toilet brush tightly in both hands.

"Syd……" Vaughn paused in mid sentence and eyed the toilet brush warily hoping she wasn't picturing his neck. He wondered how best to approach the subject. "I think it's about time you dealt with one of these little creatures yourself because one day I might not be around to help you, and your new best friend the toilet brush might be unavailable." He raised his hand towards her in support. "C'mon we will do it together." He offered.

_Vaughn honey there are some things we do fantastic together but this ain't one of them. No way am I going near that thing._

Sydney took a moment to weigh up the situation in front of her.

_Hmm he's not budging this time._

Seeing that he wasn't going to help her this time, she pulled out her ace card, the one thing she knew full well that Vaughn couldn't resist.

"But Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaughn………."

"No don't look at me like that…… that's not fair…… you know I can't resist that look." He sighed knowing full well that he was facing a losing battle. She only had to pout her lips and stare at him with those eyes and he would gladly walk off a cliff for her. He carefully sidestepped the still unmoving spider and bent down to grab the small bin next to the sink. After quickly sweeping the spider into the container he walked swiftly to the front door to let the creature outside.

Sydney impatiently hopped on one leg then the other straining to hear if Vaughn had closed the front door yet. "Is it gone?" She called in desperation.

"It's gone." Vaughn replied returning with the empty bin to the bathroom. "You know I kinda like this damsel in distress routine. You looked so cute back there waving that toilet brush in the air." He said teasingly, raising his hand up to help her down from the "safety" of the toilet. He grinned at her and kissed her lightly on her lips before leaning down to place a trail of kisses along her neck.

"Well that's nice, I was in a life or death situation and all you can do is mock me. I'll remember that." She replied, sulking, trying her hardest not to respond to his gentle ministrations.

"Syd you are the strongest person I know. If I hadn't of been there you would have easily kicked that spider's ass, there is no question of that." He brought his hands up to rest on her shoulders and started to slowly stroke her neck, unable to meet her intense gaze. "Sometimes I wonder about my place in your life." He whispered staring hard at the floor. His voice became a little hoarse. "You are so strong that I worry if I will be enough for you, if there will come a time when you won't need me."

Sydney could only stare at Vaughn in shock and it took her a moment to try and think of the words to make him comprehend just how much he meant to her, the happiness that his presence brought her. She quickly raised her hand and brought Vaughn's head up so they were eye level and she could see the emerald orbs she loved so much.

"There will never be a time when I won't need you." She whispered vehemently staring hard into his eyes. "You are everything to me, my north, my south, my east, my west. " She tenderly kissed his forehead and both cheeks before slowly bringing her lips to his month and showing him with her touch just how much he meant to her.

"My working week and my Sunday rest. You will always be my knight in shining armour; don't ever, ever doubt where you belong." She desperately pulled him into her embrace, needing to feel his strength and love. Her eyes started to well up and she hastily rubbed the unwanted moisture away.

"Speaking of belonging, I don't think we belong in the bathroom. I've seen enough of this room for the night. Damn spiders, honestly they're like boomerangs. I keep throwing them out and do they get the message? Nooooooo, they come flying right back at me."

"You keep getting rid of them?" Vaughn asked amused, raising an eyebrow at her.

_Good point_

Sydney could only stare back at him sheepishly and with a simple shrug of her shoulders she tried to replace the toilet brush in it's holder with some level of dignity.

Vaughn noticed the movement but with a smirk he decided to let it go this time. He gently grabbed her hand and led her out of the bathroom towards the bedroom.

"Syd you are absolutely right; we definitely don't belong in this room. I think this one is more to our liking." He said with a wicked grin.

As he quickly closed the bedroom door behind him and advanced towards her with a dangerously sexy look in his eyes, the only rational thought Sydney could muster up in response was:

_Mmm what a knight!_


End file.
